Lute

Matthew Spring studied lute with Diana Poulton and Jacob Lindberg at the Royal College of Music and plays medieval, renaissance and baroque lutes. He has performed as a soloist and continuo player with many groups (Bath Baroque, Elizabethan Consort, Blackdowns Early Music Project, Galliarda). His recent recording of Scottish lute music from the Balcarres Lute Book is the culmination of a long study of the book and production of a scholarly edition for the Music of Scotland series. Matthew performs in the St John’s passion playing both the lute and viol solos. He has worked in duo with various other artists: Swedish Storyteller Christina Claesson; poet Leslie Saunders; dancer Barbara Segal; lutenist Lynda Sayce (‘Music from a Tudor Court’, 2011 Gift of Music, CDG1250).

Matthew playing playing music from Balcarres

With Sara Stowe

Matthew has performed regularly with the soprano Sara Stowe. Together they have researched, performed and recorded an extensive repertoire of Early Music from the medieval to the baroque and classical. Notable recent concerts include The Spirit’s Longing - Medieval songs (FitzWilliam College Cambridge), Songs and Solos from the Court of James 1st (Holburne Musuem), ‘Bawds to Bards’ (Guildhall, Stratford) ‘Moors in Spain (Leicester, Phoenix Theatre.) Together they have recorded for Chandos (‘Senhora del Mundo' Spanish and Portuguese Vihuela Songs' - Chandos 0546), Classical Communications (`Songs for William Shakespeare', 2000, `Vision of Delight’ Music for the age of Van Dyck’, 1999, CCL CDG1014, `Music at the Court of Charles II’ Music for the Royal Portrait Gallery Exhibition 2001, CCL 816), and for the BBC Magazine (Martin Codax). They have a special interest in Spanish renaissance songs. Matthew has researched the music of Alonso Mudarra producing with Stephen Haynes a new edition of all of Mudarra’s songs to be published by the Lute Society in 2013.